


last man standing

by ralf



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Episode: s03e01 Changing of the Guard, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Keith (Voltron) Angst, Post-Season/Series 02
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-18
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2020-03-07 09:10:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18870160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ralf/pseuds/ralf
Summary: It's a gradual, creeping process but eventually the other paladins abandon their search for Shiro.





	last man standing

It's a gradual, creeping process but eventually the other paladins abandon their search for Shiro.

Pidge is the first, grudgingly giving up her shift of scouring the quadrant when Coran demands her help with a part of the castle's engineering that requires updates and adjustments.

Hunk gets called in shortly after.

Lance holds out the longest, but it's only a matter of time before he stays behind at the castle ship too, helping Allura plan new missions, working on strategies to free occupied planets with the others.

Keith is the only one who doesn't stop looking for Shiro.

On his sixth day heading out alone Allura corners him on his way to Red's hangar. He already knows what she'll say before she even opens her mouth, and he grips his helmet tighter, his teeth clenched.

Allura's eyes turn soft, undoubtedly seeing his sharp edges and his raw heart, but she speaks nonetheless. “We all miss him, Keith. But this can't go on. The universe is full of planets that need us. We can't forget our duty. Our fight is too important for that.”

Keith nearly scoffs. _That's where you're wrong._

Nothing is more important than Shiro. _Nothing._

“Without Shiro we can't form Voltron. Getting him back should be our top priority,” he says, harsher than intended, or maybe he just stopped caring about things like these.

“Keith,” Allura starts again but he can't listen to this, can't waste any more time than he already has standing around when he could be out there. He sidesteps her and continues on to the hangar.

She doesn't follow him.

Keith climbs between Red's waiting jaws and clenches his fists. How dare they all give up on Shiro? How _dare_ they?

Red soars through the stars, meeting his smoldering rage with determination and endurance, carrying them through the vast space relentlessly. Usually it calms Keith down, her dulled presence in his mind an anchor and a comfort, but today he's consumed by fury. Keith is so angry he can barely breath, his hands shaking on the steering rods, his vision swimming in and out of focus.

He welcomes it. It's better to be angry than to pause and wait for devastation to catch up with him.

He runs on rage and resentment because if he slows down for even a heartbeat he will fall into a bottomless pit of despair.

He knows from experience.

Losing Shiro this time is so much different from losing him to Kerberos. Shackled to earth there was nothing he could do to bring him back, nothing left for him but pleading uselessly with the clear blue sky.

But he's here now, in the midst of stars and moons, with a sentient robot lion at his command. Now he has the _chance_ to get Shiro back.

He just doesn't know how.

He keeps searching because it's the only option he has, the only way he can think of, but it yields nothing. Just like every other scouting he went on he returns with empty hands and an even emptier heart.

On some level Keith thinks the others feel the same loss he does, maybe not as deep and not as cutting, but they share the same kind of hurt. Still he feels like he's the only one left _fighting_ for Shiro.

There's only really one sentient being on this ship that could possibly understand him.

Black looks like Keith feels. Broken and hopeless. He's lying in a heap, caved in on himself like the day they recovered him from the battlefield.

There's something fundamentally _wrong_ about a being so majestic crumpled helplessly to the ground, vulnerable, the light gone from his eyes.

Keith wonders why he doesn't stand back up, sitting on his haunches like the other lions do when they rest. Why he doesn't activate his particle barrier and starts recovering from the fight that left him battered.

Maybe without Shiro there's no healing for him, too, just like there is none for Keith.

Keith sits down cautiously in front of the massive silent lion and slowly reaches out a hand to touch his muzzle.

The metal is cold, bitingly so, and Keith feels it like a freezing hand closing around his heart. He tries to push through it anyway.

“We're gonna get him back, right? The two of us are not giving up on him.”

He waits for a moment even though he doesn't know what for. For Black to wake up maybe, to help him save Shiro like he did once before on that forsaken desert planet. For a whisper of consciousness, a sign that Black didn't leave them like Shiro did. For a flicker of hope.

But there's nothing. Black's eyes remain dark and lifeless, and Keith has never felt more alone.

 


End file.
